Reflection on Hadad
27 May 2024DK-Ardok
My encounters with the previous titans were mostly observation and gunning. I've helped pilots with watching for scouts, interceptors and glaives. The third, titan, however, was Oya and that was my first official time fighting a titan in my own ship. By this time, I hadn't even been a pilot for a year. I'm not as experienced as others within my squadron, but I think I'm doing alright all things considered. Sure, I might have a support system, but I do put in a lot of work for myself, too. Oya was a big event for me, and Hadad felt like another milestone for me as well.I felt the same nervousness as I approached Hadad. Unfortunately my first attempt made me flee. My entrance to the cloud was terrible, as I only had like 9% hull left on my Krait Mk II. I managed to recover, however, fled my first bombing attempt and then went on second and third runs, which both were successful. I wasn't expecting on one of those runs to actually hit 4 vents and lay the smackdown on the "pineapple". I still have a lot of engineering to do on my Krait Mk II, and I guess it's helping me as a pilot, even though I know I can make more improvements.
It also helps I have the Fleet Carrier Nidhogg to help me create a temporary staging point when I decide to do any Anti-Xeno activities to defend humanity. While I realize that some of us are the reason for this war, not all of us deserve to perish. It's now known that even innocents perish at the hands of the Thargoids. I realize in a lot of ways some of us deserve this, but not all of humanity. I still chose to help defend humanity, because even though we are terrible, there is also the ability to do incredible good as well. I also salute my fellow commanders out there who endeavor to work hard to protect humanity, because without this protection, we cannot work further to understand our universe; our galaxy. In doing so we must find ways to prevent wars like this. However, in seeing humanity in history, war is always inevitable. I don't fight because I hate Thargoids. I fight, because human lives are at stake. I'm sure they fight because they feel that Thargoid lives are at stake. We're fighting to preserve ourselves, overall.
Some fight for supremacy, which is sad to me, because we've read and seen what supremacy does to our own kind. I feel now that I've grown into bombing titans thanks to my squadron and my friend, Commander Icepaw. I went from only being able to nervously bomb two vents to actually hitting four and raining down hell of missiles upon the core of Hadad. I never thought I had it in me, sure I sacrificed my ship and re-bought another, but it was worth it. I remember how aggressive Thargoids are. It doesn't matter if you're just exploring, they now open fire on anyone invading on territory they see as theirs. Even if they invaded our space within The Bubble. So because humanity has to pay, they have to pay as well. That's what war does. Everyone in the end loses, even if there's a victor.
This, to me, is far more important than pledging allegiances to powers throughout the bubble or any other super power. This and exploration are the things that matter to me the most right now. While I still feel I have a lot to learn, I am beginning to see my growth. I'm thankful that I have something to show for it now.
Fly safely, fellow commanders,
Commander DK-Ardok out.